5 Tips to Soothe a Gassy Baby

While intestinal gas is a common occurrence and usually harmless to a baby, it can be very uncomfortable and sometimes painful for them. It can be just as hard for the parent, who desperately wants to soothe their fussy little one. Gas in your baby can be caused by air they have swallowed while eating. If this air isn’t burped up, it can move down the digestive tract and cause bloating, discomfort, irritability and sometimes stomach cramps for a baby. In general, bottle-fed babies are more prone to gas than breastfed babies are, due to them swallowing more air. But take it from a breastfeeding mom, breastfed babies are not immune to gassiness! My son was only two weeks old when I started running into problems with gassiness, and as a first time mom I had no idea how to handle it in the beginning. It took a lot of research, trial and error to figure out ways to soothe my baby and help him pass gas. To save other parents the time and effort, I put together this list of the top 5 tricks I picked up along the way to soothe my baby’s gas.

1. Burp your baby every few minutes throughout a feeding, as well as after the feeding. There is a short window of time to get air bubbles up and out of your baby’s tummy before they move down the digestive tract and turn into intestinal gas. For babies who are prone to gas, burping throughout the feeding, as well as after, can help you catch the air bubble within that time frame. For breastfed babies, burp every 5–10 minutes while feeding. For bottle fed babies, burp for every 2–3 ounces they eat. If your baby has trouble burping, experiment with different burping positions to find the one that works best for your baby. If that doesn’t work, try laying your baby flat for a minute or two then burping them again.
2. Make sure baby’s latch is correct. Whether your baby is breastfed or bottle fed, they need to have a good latch to prevent them from swallowing excess air while eating. For breastfed babies, the baby should latch on to the breast chin first, with the nipple angled towards their nose and their lower lip slightly below the areola. Mom can sandwich the areola to get as much of it as possible into the baby’s mouth. The baby’s top lip should cover as much of the areola as possible, though a little bit of areola showing at the top is okay. Make sure that both lips flange outwards and there is good suction and a deep looking latch. Signs that your baby’s latch is incorrect are clicking noises as they eat, nipple pain that lasts the whole feeding, cracked or blistered nipples, gagging or choking while eating, a low milk supply, and the baby fussing at the breast and still showing signs of hunger after a feeding. If you continue to struggle with your baby’s latch, consider seeing a lactation consultant and checking the baby for oral ties that may inhibit a correct latch. A good latch on a bottle is similar to a good latch on a breast. The baby should have a deep latch, with their lips resting towards the base of the nipple instead of on the tip. Their lips should be flanged outwards and their mouth wide. Signs of a bad latch in a bottle fed baby are gagging or choking while eating, fussing and difficulty expressing milk from the bottle, biting or chewing on the bottle’s nipple, and leaking milk out of the baby’s mouth.
3. Do bicycle kicks with their legs. Lay your baby flat on their back and gently move their legs in a bicycle kick motion, applying slight pressure to their stomach with each knee as it goes up. This can help gas move through the digestive tract, and even stimulate a bowel movement. This can provide your baby with huge relief because they will often pass gas with the bowel movement.
4. Try a tummy massage. You can massage your little one’s tummy using a clockwise motion to encourage gas to move. You can also do downward strokes and strokes from the center of the belly out towards the sides. This will not only soothe your baby, but help trapped air bubbles move around and hopefully out of your baby’s belly.
5. Check for a foremilk/ hindmilk imbalance in breastfed babies. If your baby’s gas comes with other symptoms such as green, foamy or watery stools, crying and restlessness after a feeding, and an oversupply of mom’s milk, they may have a foremilk/ hindmilk imbalance. This happens when baby gets too much foremilk in comparison to hindmilk. Foremilk is the sugary milk at the front of the breast, which comes out first during a feeding. Hindmilk is the fatty milk that sits farther back and comes out later in the feeding. If mom does not have an oversupply of milk, this can be caused by switching breasts too soon during a feeding. A simple fix to this is to feed on only one breast per feeding to ensure the entire breast is being emptied. If mom is experiencing an oversupply, the baby may be getting full off of her foremilk alone and not eating long enough to express enough hindmilk. In this case, mom may have to pump or hand express a bit of foremilk from her breast before feeding her baby. It is wise in either situation to avoid switching breasts during a single feeding, or at least waiting until the first breast is completely empty.